DOCOMO, NEC Launch Japan's First Commercial 5G Core on AWS

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NTT DOCOMO, INC. and NEC Corporation announced the launch of Japan’s first commercial 5G core network (5GC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS) on February 26. Advanced architecture, constructed using Agentic AI, enables the network to flexibly and rapidly expand capacity, such as dynamically expanding its capacity in response to sudden traffic surges, for dramatically improved reliability, flexibility and sustainability.

In a separate world-first achievement, DOCOMO and NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS, Inc. in collaboration with NTT DOCOMO SOLUTIONS, Inc. have also successfully automated 5GC design and construction on AWS. To do this, they leveraged Agentic AI—a combination of AI and GitOps in a hybrid cloud environment. This innovative approach prevents human error and reduces construction time by approximately 80% compared to conventional methods.

First in Japan to Construct and Commercially Launch 5GC on AWS

In March 2022, DOCOMO and NEC started verifying 5GC network equipment operating on a hybrid cloud using AWS, aiming to enhance network deployment flexibility and reliability. The process included testing the coordinated operation of the 5GC on AWS and DOCOMO’s proprietary virtualization platform, as well as ensuring carrier-grade availability and operability. Connecting the two platforms presented significant challenges, including network and security design considerations, but DOCOMO and NEC successfully overcame these issues to confirm that the 5GC operates seamlessly in a hybrid cloud environment.

Building on this success, DOCOMO and NEC have now implemented the necessary fault tolerance and redundancy for a commercial environment, creating a hybrid cloud that combines their virtualization platform with a public cloud. In developing this environment, DOCOMO defined the requirements, established design policies, and reviewed the implementation method for the hybrid cloud. NEC redesigned the entire architecture to establish a construction and operation model based on infrastructure as code (IaC) and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) for AWS. This process incorporated AWS managed services, such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS CodeBuild, and AWS CodePipeline, into the design.

This hybrid cloud environment is expected to improve network operational efficiency and enable the flexibility and reliability required in the 5G era. For example, building the 5GC on AWS in addition to a separate virtualization platform enables flexible operations, such as rapidly expanding capacity when network demand increases due to a sudden event, and scaling down when increased capacity is no longer needed.

Additionally, operational tests confirmed a power consumption reduction of approximately 70% by running the 5GC on AWS Graviton2 processors and conducting operational tests in a hybrid cloud environment that connected the 5GC on Graviton2 with the 5GC on DOCOMO’s virtualization platform. In a commercial environment, the 5GC built on AWS Graviton3 is expected to reduce environmental impact similarly.

World’s First Automation of 5GC Network from Design to Construction Using GitOps and AI

DOCOMO and DOCOMO BUSINESS, in collaboration with DOCOMO SOLUTIONS, achieved the world’s first automation of 5GC design and construction using GitOps and AI, aiming to prevent human error and shorten the construction period.

DOCOMO and DOCOMO SOLUTIONS used GitOps to automate construction from the cloud infrastructure up to the 5GC. DOCOMO BUSINESS automated the 5GC design and construction processes, as well as the development of Agentic AI, while NTT DOCOMO SOLUTIONS implemented and verified the AWS infrastructure portion of GitOps.

To minimize manual tasks, such as designing configuration values, they adopted Agentic AI with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, AWS’s agentic AI platform for building, deploying, and operating effective agents securely at scale, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), creating a new architecture integrated with GitOps.

Conventionally, 5GC construction required the creation and modification of numerous complex configuration files, a process that demanded significant manpower and time. However, by implementing Agentic AI with multiple AI agents using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, DOCOMO BUSINESS was able to automate tasks such as designing configuration values, creating settings files, and issuing construction instructions to GitOps. Consequently, they succeeded in automating everything from design to construction. As a result, the 5GC construction period was reduced by approximately 80% compared to conventional methods.

In the future, the companies plan to improve access to their knowledge base and optimize task allocation among AI agents, aiming to achieve faster network speeds and higher precision. They will also expand the scope of AI utilization and accelerate efforts toward the complete automation of 5GC operations by enhancing reproducibility, reliability and operational efficiency through AI-driven generation and execution.